Leading up NBA All Star Weekend, which starts tonight in New Orleans, the NBA was facing quite a PR nightmare. Much beloved Knicks great, Charles Oakley, was physically escorted (manhandled is more appropriate) out of his seats and the Garden and then ultimately arrested. Fans and players came to his defense, including Warriors All Star forward Draymond Green, who issued his own take on the situation:
No. 1(Oakley) is a legend. Treat him as such. Why is (Oakley) buying a ticket to a game, first off? … It wasn’t a problem when (Oakley) was speaking out (when he played in the 1990s). It wasn’t a problem when he was protecting (the Knicks’) superstars then. So if it wasn’t a problem then when he was doing it for y’all, why is it all of a sudden a problem now when he speak out on something that he don’t like, and now you want to disown him from your entire organization? … That’s a slave mentality. A slave-master mentality. That’s ridiculous.
Well a few days later, Draymond has clarified his comments in an interview with ESPN’s “Meet the Stars,” scheduled to air Saturday.
“I can’t say James Dolan is a racist. I don’t know James Dolan. I never said James Dolan doesn’t have a slave-master mentality. I said when you look at something and someone is doing something for someone and all of a sudden they can’t anymore, that falls under the slave mentality.”
The reaction to Green’s response has yet to been seen, but while the situation between Oakley and Dolan is still running hot, the perspectives on the situation will most likely continue.
